Thursday, April 29, 2010

[As the title suggests, I hope to do a more in-depth post on this subject in the very near future. For now, allow me to transpose this comment I made in another venue, with some minor edits]

I was chatting with some friends the other day, in the wake of the Arizona immigration law which was Governor Brewer recently, and it lead to a discussion of attitudes towards immigrants. Particularly, one friend's girlfriend posited that immigrants (presumably illegal, but it's left unclear) were hurting our school system by overfilling it and not speaking English. Now, I have serious problems with this argument in a number of ways, and will hopefully address some of them in an upcoming post, but at the time I wanted to make it clear that my position was that if these problems exist, they're symptoms of a larger structural issue. Illegal immigration occurs not because people just love breaking the law, but because we're born into a structure of asymmetrical power. When discussing immigration, it borders on the dishonest not to pull back our discussion to that larger discussion. What follow is something of a rant I made. My plan is for a shortly upcoming post to offer a more deliberative take on the issue (while maintaining the moral positions made here, although probably dropping some of the spicy language):

Basically, if you're trying to immigrate here and you're not college educated with an employer willing to step up for you, you're fucked. And even then, you're probably fucked.

In that context, I find it grotesque when people complain about what villanious lawbreakers illegal immigrants are and, damned straight, I support the shit out of illegal immigration because it's about the only way most folks have of getting into this country and trying to do a little better for themselves and their families. Frankly, I'm rather sickened by people who are so murderously unfeeling that they'd rather some PLAY BY THE RULES (as if following the rules, in and of itself, in the alpha and the omega of virtuous behavior or ethical action) than try to make sure their child doesn't starve to death because the global elite decided to impose perverse economic laws on poor countries to increase their profits at the expense of the workers who actually, you know, do the work. It's sickening that we actively support this global inequity (and all of us living in this country do, as long as we buy pretty much anything from a multi-national corporation) and then have the GALL to demonize the people who bear the brunt of our lazy greed and are just trying to make their lives a little better.

In the interim between now and when we meet again, here are a few bits of reading which are informing how I'll be writing about this issue in the near future.

Additional Reading:

Reason Foundation (Of Reason Magazine fame) has a pretty good write-up of how immoral and backwards the system is (w/ a handy cartoon flowchard in .pdf form at the bottom of the page).

Norman Grigg offers a truly excellent analysis of the Border Patrol and the long-term consequences of developing a "Constitution-Free Zone", both on the personal level and more overarching consequences.

Roderick Long offers a concise critique of some conservative thinkers' positions.

Saturday, April 17, 2010

Just wanted to give a quick shout-out for Record Store Day, which is a pretty cool worldwide event to promote independent record stores. Swing by your local indie record store (I'll be stopping by here) for exclusive vinyl release, free cds, goodies and so forth. You city slicker types should check to see if your local store is having any in-store appearances by musicians and bands and whatnot. From the event website:

The original idea for Record Store Day was conceived by Chris Brown, and was founded in 2007 by Eric Levin, Michael Kurtz, Carrie Colliton, Amy Dorfman, Don Van Cleave and Brian Poehner as a celebration of the unique culture surrounding over 700 independently owned record stores in the USA, and hundreds of similar stores internationally.

This is the one day that all of the independently owned record stores come together with artists to celebrate the art of music. Special vinyl and CD releases and various promotional products are made exclusively for the day and hundreds of artists in the United States and in various countries across the globe make special appearances and performances. Festivities include performances, cook-outs, body painting, meet & greets with artists, parades, djs spinning records and on and on. Metallica officially kicked off Record Store Day at Rasputin Music in San Francisco on April 19, 2008 and Record Store Day is now celebrated the third Saturday every April.

Friday, April 16, 2010

Review: Yikes, it's been almost a month since I've done any of these. Ah well, I guess it's partly because when episodes are solid-but-not-groundbreaking (as opposed to terrible or fantastic), discussing them becomes a little less interesting. Still, this is a pretty impressive episode - largely for the surprise ending. I won't give away anything here, but it's quite the shock the first time you see the episode. The rest of the episode is very competently done - and having Martha Jones on board for a few episodes is a real treat - but the particulars of the plot are largely unmemorable.

Final Verdict: This really accomplishes what the title of the episode suggests, which is to essentially reset the show and create some interesting new dynamics. While the plot itself is somewhat slight (although by no means bad), the (temporary) addition of Martha Jones and the startling ending profoundly chance the relationships all the characters have with each other, and create much more compelling show from this point on. While the show had gotten to a good place by now, from here on out it really takes it to the next level. Definitely a must-see episode.